Posted on July 8, 2009 by Darren
There’s a lot of trash talk out there about Roger Ebert. Is he going soft in his old age? Is he wrong to ‘go easy’ on really terrible films? I don’t know and I don’t care, because the man is some sort of legend. Sure, I may disagree with his opinion from time (I don’t buy his argument against 3D, for example, and there are quite a few movies on which he and I diverge), but I always find his comments insightful, well considered and respectful. That’s something a lot of film critics these days who seem to use their reviews to make pith putdowns and blithe one-liners could learn from – and I am looking at you, David Edelstein. Still, he ain’t a man to pull his punches, and that’s another reason I love him so dearly. His latest attack was on those who dared deem Transformers 2 a good movie – or even defend it as “as good as it could have been”. The article can be read here and is well worth a look for anyone interested in the man or his artform, or even movies in general.
Some man for one man...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: blockbusters, box office, criticism, critics, critiques, ebert, film criticism, film critics, film reviews, i am a brainiac, roger ebert, transformers 2 | 1 Comment »
Posted on July 8, 2009 by Darren
Ah, the musical. The genre of choice for middleaged women everywhere. One of those glamourous shallow callbacks to the golden era of Hollywood. I was intrigued when Tim Burton announced his next project was a musical – an adaptation of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. I was familiar with the myth of the man, but not the musical. I ended up being served a treat almost as fiendishly decadent as Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies: a little flaky and suspicious in places, and a lot more filling than it should be. Magical, macabre, magnificent. It’s isn’t classic Burton, but it’s certainly vintage.
Get ready for a close shave...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: films, helena honham carter, johnny depp, Movies, musical, musicals, non-review review, reviews, sacha baron cohen, stephen sondheim, sweeney todd, tim burton, victorian london | 2 Comments »
Posted on July 8, 2009 by Darren
I used to love going to the cinema and watching the trailers. Teasing me with movies I hadn’t heard of yet, showing me my first look at movies I was anticipating all summer or perhaps reaffirming my faith in a movie I’d written off. It doesn’t matter that the trailers always lie (Sweeney Todd is a musical? Not according to the trailer) or they spoil too much (not sure if it’s possible to spoil a historical biopic, but Public Enemies had a trailer which ran until Dillinger escaped in Indiana, which is at least two-thirds the run time), but I loved ’em. And if one of those trailers stunk, I didn’t mind, because there were five or six more waiting for me. I don’t mind having twenty minutes of advertisements before a movie (as happened when I saw The Hangover), but I do mind if these ads are focused on selling my things I don’t really want or care about.
I want to see more of this...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: advertising, adverts, cinema trips, cinemas, film trailers, films, Movies, products, rant, Television, trailers | Leave a comment »
Posted on July 7, 2009 by Darren
There’s nothing like a little bit of political correctness gone crazy to get the blood flowing. I’m amazed it’s taken me this long to find a story that piqued my interest enough that I would cover it. Ask and you shall receive and all that. Last week’s hubbub over the trailer for Warner Brothers’ film Orphan is exactly what irritates me about our current PC-focused state of mind. For those who don’t know, Orphan sees an adopted little girl proceeding to wreak havoc on a small suburban family. The trailer was released last week and prompted a huge outcry from various interest groups for including the line, “It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own.” Because apparently every line spoken in movies must be the unadulterated truth, right? No characters would ever make a subjective statement about their own incorrect world view, would they?
Creepy children never go out of fashion...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: adoption, age restrictions, censorship, complaints, controversy, film classification, film ratings, films, interest groups, Movies, orphan, orphan movie, pc, political correctness, R, restricted, Warner Brothers, world gone mad | 1 Comment »
Posted on July 7, 2009 by Darren
This could go really well, or really badly. On one hand, I’m all about horror films that aren’t about psycho killers stalking and slashing scantily clad teenage girls. On the other hand, it takes a lot of restraint to do psychological horror well. Either way, the Stanford Prison Experiment looks set to terrify more than just first year psychology students, with the similarly-themed The Experiment in the works.
Would you let this guy lock you up for a psychological experiment?
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Abu Ghraib, adrian brody, das experiment, elijah wood, films, forest whitaker, horror, Movies, philip zimbardo, psychological experiment, psychological thriller, psychology, stanford, stanford prison expiremnt, the experiment, true stories, zimbardo | Leave a comment »
Posted on July 6, 2009 by Darren
I have to confess I was not overly impressed with Public Enemies. In fairness, it was mostly down to the choices Mann made in filming the work – the high definition cameras and the insistence on shakey hand held movement. You might argue that it was a choice designed to place us in the real world of the Great Depression – to put us on the streets with Dillinger and immerse us in his world rather than the sanitised grandiose version of the 1930’s that typically finds its way on to our screens. This ignores one fundamental fact about Mann’s film making: it is no less grandiose or fantastic than those myths of times past. Mann is a film maker who works best exploring the dynamics of a masculine ideal that never existed. His male characters are drawn in the mold of a classic image that never actually existed.
I'll bet Pacino ordered the Large Ham. Overdone. VERY LOUDLY!
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies, Television | Tagged: action movies, ali, collateral, director, film, guns, heat, john dillinger, male, masculine, masculinity, men, michael mann, modern man, Movies, public enemies, themes, violence | Leave a comment »
Posted on July 6, 2009 by Darren
The War Games, the final Doctor Who serial featuring Patrick Troughton, materialises on DVD today. I haven’t seen it (I’ll probably pick it up from HMV today if the price is right), but reviews seem to state it’s one of the show’s few ten-parters that doesn’t feel padded… well as padded. Anyway, I’m a big fan of Troughton’s Doctor (whose one-adjective-summation would be “loveable” – in the same way that Tom Baker’s would be “dramatic” or Eccleston’s would be “human” or Hartnell’s would be “bratty” and so on), but we’re nearing the end of Troughton serials available for release. Which is a damned shame. Is animation the next step forward?
The "Reanimated" Cybermen...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Television | Tagged: animated dotor who, animation, bbc, black and white, british television, classic, cosgrove hall, david tennant, doctor who, dvds, patrick troughton, second doctor, serials, Television, the invasion, the war games, troughton | Leave a comment »
Posted on July 5, 2009 by Darren
Kudos to the good people over at Vodkaster. They’ve put together the Top 250 Movies of All Time (as of 19th June 2009) in the style of a metro/subway map. It really is a fantastic acheivement, though I’d disagree with some of their classifications. Click here, or the photo, for more.
Should I make a pun about "underground classics"?
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: best movies, city plan, favourite movies, film, great movies, imdb, map, metro, subway | Leave a comment »
Posted on July 3, 2009 by Darren
I want to love this film. I really do. I enjoyed Miami Vice, so devoted am I to the cult of Mann and his study of the modern man lost in the world of violence and suffering. And Public Enemies has a lot going for it, it does. A fantastic cast, a better-than-fantastic lead, a solid script. On the other hand, the film is, technically speaking, a mess. And not the good kind of mess.
Don't get Christian Bale angry... He won't like you when he's angry...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: billy crudup, christian bale, crime, fbi, film, high definition, history, j edgar hoover, john dillinger, johnny depp, michael mann, Movies, non-review review, public enemies, public enemy number one, review | 11 Comments »
Posted on July 3, 2009 by Darren
the m0vie blog 